Comprehensive Lua Training Course

Introduction to Lua for Government

• A Brief History
• Lua's Goals, Features, and Non-Goals
• Resources for Lua Documentation and Tutorials for Government Use
• Installing the Lua Interpreter for Government Systems
• Setting Up and Using LuaRocks for Government Applications

Basic Syntax and Semantics for Government

• Identifiers
• Comments and Block Comments
• Global Variables and Enforcing Strictness
• Local Variables
• Standalone Programs and Program Arguments for Government Applications
• Compilation Units, Chunks, Expressions, and Semicolons

Data Types and Data Structures for Government Use

• Basic Types: nil, boolean, number, string
• Object Types: function, userdata, thread, table
• References/Objects vs. Basic Values
• The Importance of Tables in Lua for Government Applications

Introduction to Tables and Their Versatility for Government Use

• Tables as an Associative Array
• Tables as Numeric Arrays, Sequences

Basic Control Structures for Government

• The if then elseif else end Structure
• The while Loop
• The repeat Loop
• The Simple for Loop

Error Handling for Government Applications

• Return Values vs. Exceptions
• Converting a Return Value to an Exception
• Converting an Exception to a Return Value
• Error Levels

Example Programs for Government Use

• Polynomial Evaluation
• Breadth First Search
• Additional Exercises for Government Practitioners

More About Functions for Government Applications

• Named Arguments
• Object-Oriented Calls
• Closures
• Currying
• Tail Calls
• Multiple Assignment and Return Values
• Varargs

Iterators and Co-routines for Government Use

• The Generic for Loop
• Stateless vs. Stateful Iterators
• Differences Between Iterators and Co-routines

Metatables and Metamethods for Government Applications

• The Set Example
• The __tostring Metamethod
• Arithmetic Metamethods
• The __index, __newindex Metamethods
• The __len Metamethod

Modules and Packages for Government Use

• Using Modules in Government Applications
• Creating Modules for Government Systems
• Organizing Modules into Packages for Government Use

Advanced Tables for Government Applications

• Tables for Queues and Stacks
• Tables Describing Graphs
• Matrices as Tables
• Linked Lists as Tables
• String Buffers

Metatables Through Examples for Government Use

• Proxies
• Readonly
• Memoization
• Dynamic Programming with Memoization
• The Fibonacci Example

Environments for Government Applications

• Relationship Between Global Variables and Environments
• Free Variables
• The _ENV Table and the _G Table

More About Modules for Government Use

• Different Approaches to Creating Modules for Government Systems
• Modules that Change Behavior for Government Applications
• Module Initialization and Arguments for Government Use
• Using Environments to Implement Safe Modules for Government

Advanced Iterators and Co-routines for Government Applications

• Producer, Consumer, Filter
• Wrapping Co-routines to Get Iterators for Government Use
• Stateless Iterator for Linked Lists in Government Systems

Contributing to the Ecosystem for Government Use

• Uploading Packages to MoonRocks for Government Applications

Functional Paradigm in Lua for Government

• The map Function
• The reduce / fold Function

Object-Oriented Programming for Government Applications

• Different Approaches to OOP for Government Use
• Different Approaches to Inheritance for Government Systems
• Examples of Object-Oriented Programming in Government Applications

A Walkthrough of the Lua Standard Libraries for Government Use

Compilation for Government Applications

• Compilation
• Eval
• Relationship with the Environment for Government Systems
• Binary Chunks for Government Use

Garbage Collection for Government Applications

• Weak Tables
• Finalizers, the __gc Meta-method for Government Use

Lua Bytecode and Virtual Machine for Government Systems

• Generating Bytecode from Source Code for Government Applications
• Reading and Analyzing Bytecode for Government Use
• Quick Tour of the Source Code of the Lua VM for Government Practitioners

C Modules for Government Systems

• Calling C from Lua for Government Applications
• Search Path and Loading of C Modules for Government Use

Calling Lua from C for Government Applications

• The Stack for Government Use
• Error Handling in Government Systems
• Continuations for Government Applications

Handling Lua Values and Types from C for Government Systems

• Arrays
• Strings
• Userdata for Government Use
• Metatables for Government Applications
• Object-Oriented Calls in Government Systems
• Light Userdata for Government Use

Memory Management for Government Applications

• Allocators for Government Use
• GC API for Government Systems

Threads in Lua for Government Applications

• Co-routines vs. Threads for Government Use
• Real Multi-threading and Lua States for Government Systems